Okay, so now you know why you should invest time upfront to do your research and find the best candidates. Now let’s look at some of the steps involved in the actual due diligence process…
Check feedback ratings
If you’re hiring a freelancer from a freelancing site (like Elance.com), then you have the advantage of checking the person’s feedback and ratings from other business owners.
Ask around
Whether you’re hiring offline or online, you can ask around to see if anyone has any good or bad experiences with this freelancer.
Review the portfolio
This is actually one of the first things you should do if you’re hiring certain types of freelancers like writers, graphic designers and similar. Point is, you want to make sure that your freelancer is capable of handling the type of work you require.
Look at testimonials
Don’t believe everything you read, though, as a testimonial is easy enough to fake.
Use Google
Finally, one of the best ways to do your due diligence is to research the freelancer’s business history and background in Google.
Do NOT just cherry pick one or two of the above methods while ignoring the others, especially if you’re looking for a freelancer for a big, expensive and/or ongoing project.
Instead, go through all the steps above (where applicable) so that you get a clear picture of the freelancer’s:
- Ability to produce great work.
- Ability to meet deadlines.
- Ability to be professional.
Once you’ve done your due diligence, you’ll find that your big list of prospective freelancers very quickly gets whittled down to a select group.
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All posts in the “Grow Your Business with Freelancers” Series:
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